Arabs Mock Holocaust Day, City's Mayor Steps In

A group of Arabs in the coastal city of Lod chose to mock Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day Sunday evening, by launching fireworks at Jewish homes just before the somber nationwide ceremonies began.

However, the provocation met a determined personal response by the city's mayor, Yair Revivo.

Revivo and Municipality Director Aharon Atias were on their way to a Remembrance Day ceremony in the Ganei Aviv neighborhood, when a volley of dozens of fireworks was fired from the area of town where the Abu Sirhan clan resides. The fireworks were aimed at residential buildings inhabited by Jews.

Revivo stopped his car and entered the location from which the fireworks were launched. Dozens of youths from the clan began to crowd around him and Atias, in a threatening manner.

Matters heated up and Revivo alerted the commander of the Lod police station, Lt. Col. Tzvika Hasid, who arrived at the location with reinforced SWAT forces that arrested seven of the clan members.

The fireworks fusillade was not the first to be fired in recent days, however. Hundreds of fireworks have been fired in similar circumstances throughout Lod, during the entire weekend, causing great consternation among Jews.

"We will not allow anyone to disturb the basic calm that residents deserve, be they Jewish or Arab,” vowed Revivo. “The firing of fireworks in accordance with the law requires a license and involves many regulations,” he noted, and vowed to stop the phenomenon of firing guns and setting off fireworks in the Arab sector.